From Aether to Alderaan
by Lurker-in-Light
Summary: A return visit to Aether ends with an unexpected trip through a portal. Now lost in another galaxy, without even her Power Suit, how will Samus acquire the resources to find her way home? Turns out that even in another galaxy, they still need bounty hunters...
1. Chapter 1: Arrival

**Standard disclaimer: I don't own the Metroid or Star Wars franchises, obviously. I'm also not making money off of this. I also won't repeat this in later chapters, because that would be redundant.**

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It had been some time since Samus Aran had seen an abandoned pirate base. Hardly surprising, given their fondness for self-destruct devices. But back on Aether with no interesting leads on pirate activity from her own research, or her few remaining contacts in Galactic Federation space after the BSL incident, she decided to accept the Luminoth invitation to study it before it was demolished. The Pirates had tried to set up a covert base there to pick up hints about Dark Aether, in their persistent quest of an edge. But even in the midst of rebuilding after a half century of war, the Luminoth found and destroyed them.

Samus found it a little surreal, walking the deserted corridors and laboratories of the base, as she headed for the command center. Her skirmishes with the pirates rarely left much time to studying their bases for anything but exploitable weaknesses. The detailed scans she took lasted longer than her battle through the Pirate's main base on Aether; and the realization brought about a wry grin behind her helmet.

Arriving in the command center, Samus took a moment to examine the portal device installed there. It was an obvious attempt to copy the Luminoth portal device, despite the technology being worthless after the collapse of Dark Aether. Not something she minded, as Dark Aether had been one of the more unpleasant places she'd visited; despite Zebes and SR388 being largely considered death worlds.

Putting it out of her mind, Samus began accessing what files were left unprotected, skimming a few but downloading most for later perusal. Most were as repugnant as ever, though they brought a grim satisfaction at her destruction of their base.

Once the easy pickings were gleaned from the computers, she began downloading the Pirate's encrypted data, which was of considerably greater volume. Samus prepared herself for a long and boring wait when the screens turned red, and the now familiar sound of a self-destruct klaxon began to blare.

"Typical," grunted Samus as she turned to dash for the exit. She would like to get back at the author of that policy, but given how many pirate leaders she'd killed, she'd have to be content assuming them dead.

However, she had barely turned when blast shields slammed down over the exits, cutting off her escape, scanning showed her arsenal wouldn't touch it. So she turned back to the monitor, which was now flashing a message:

SELF DESTRUCT INITIATED

ENTER KEY TO HALT REACTOR OVERLOAD

17…16…

Samus switched to her X-Ray visor to search for an alternate exit, but found nothing after several precious seconds searching. A groaning whine rose in the background, and she switched off the x-ray visor as it climaxed and a power surge from the overloaded reactor blew out the room's lights. But the magenta emergency lighting was almost immediately overridden by a flash from the portal device somehow activating. Even in the darkened room, the space where the portal should be was notable for its absolute blackness. Crescendo

Samus took a few precious seconds to deliberate, but the unknown was always better than certain death. She took off at a run for the portal and dove through as an overloaded power conduit detonated behind her.

Afterwards, Samus was never quite sure of when the momentary blackout from the blast ended, and the darkness of the portal began. In fact, she could not see, hear, or feel anything on the other side, not even the tug of gravity.

See and hear nothing except the alarms and warnings of her powersuit's heads up display, as energy for her shields began draining away in a torrent. Apparently she was somehow back on Dark Aether, but the drain was far faster, and not even that world of darkness had been completely devoid of light.

Samus checked her HUD, and saw that the suit's exterior lights were active, but she couldn't see anything around her, and the suit's exterior sensors registered hard vacuum. Concerned, Samus experimentally fired several shots into the darkness with her cannon, but they faded to nothing within meters. Samus followed up with a charged blast, which performed only slightly better. Alarmingly, her suit energy was already down by a quarter.

Not expecting better results, but at a loss for other options, Samus tried her missiles; these flew into the void somewhat weakly to her eye, until their propellant was expended. Bombs and power bombs functioned in a muted fashion, in addition to producing no shockwave in the empty vacuum. This suggested something was draining the energy of her suit, but not the chemical energy in her missiles, although it did absorb energy from the missile once the propellant started burning.

"Space Jump" couldn't get her anywhere when there was nowhere to go, but the screw attack ability did something. While sheathed in its energy, the rate of drain on her reserves diminished substantially, and with her reserves now at 50%, Samus began using it repeatedly, trying to buy time. But soon the effect began to diminish, and Samus realized that the rate of drain between uses was now greater.

Now out of options, Samus felt almost at peace with the inevitable, with a trace of anger that she wouldn't go down fighting. But as the last of her suit's energy guttered out a tear ripped through the blackness surrounding her, and her vision briefly dimmed as the suit cracked open. Unprepared, she fell heavily on a dark stone floor, the pieces of her suit clattering around and atop her.

Samus rose painfully from the floor wearing what she had on under the suit; little more than a two piece swimsuit. As such it offered little protection against the chill she felt in the air. She had no real answers as to why she was alive, but she could speculate, even with no scan visor to confirm the hypothesis. It seemed to her that the most likely explanation was that the portal, only opened by a massive surge of power, needed energy to continue, and was then sustained by the energy of her suit. Once it ran out of power, the portal collapsed and deposited her here, wherever that was. She was still in darkness, but it felt somehow less impenetrable.

She activated her light and drew her emergency pistol, and settled into a ready stance. She was in a cavernous room, too large for the light to more than hint at the edges. Reddish brown stone slabs covered the floor, with mysterious glyphs burned into them. As Samus began moving to explore the edges of the room, she began to feel eyes on her. But as she scanned her surroundings on the way toward the wall, she saw nothing, feeling the lack of her suit's sensory visors acutely. Continuing cautiously, she began to feel an oppressive dread, more than seemed justified, and her thoughts uneasily went to the Chozo ghosts she'd encountered on Tallon IV. She would have no recourse but to flee such an encounter, unequipped as she was.

Reaching the wall at last, Samus began to follow it, examining it as she went. It had images carved into it. Initially she was again reminded of Chozo ruins and temples with their hieroglyphs, but these scenes all depicted a humanoid's life and accomplishments, many of which could be called atrocities, their scope and scale increasing as she followed the wall.

Finally, after traveling some distance along the wall and continuing after a corner, she encountered a massive stone door, and she felt it must be the tomb of the humanoid warrior depicted in the pictograms and glyphs. As she had approached it, the oppressive feeling grew, until, standing before the door, she could feel an almost physically despair. Only her own warrior training and long experience gave her the will to stand before that door. It was clearly unnatural, and she decided against attempted entry in her current state. The ghosts of the Chozo had taught her that the dead didn't always lie peacefully. So Samus used the door as a guide, and began walking across the center of the vast chamber, hopefully towards a way out.

Her insight proved correct some minutes later, well past sight of the tomb door, and with the "watched" feeling having receded to a vague disquiet. A vast archway was before her, and behind it lay a flight of stairs built to human standards. Looking up, a dim light above suggested that the stair progressed for at least a dozen expansive flights, and she felt some irritation at the hubris of whoever had built this tomb. Although in a moment of candor, she realized the Chozo likely wouldn't have deigned to put in stairs of any sort. She decided to tarry a bit longer, and after spending several minutes collecting the pieces of her suit to hide in blessedly empty urns set near the stairs, she began her climb. She hated to leave her suit behind, but could not carry it without a bag or pack.

Samus was beginning to feel fatigued despite her Chozo gifts when she reached the top of the stairs; having passed several darkened exits she judged not prudent to explore at the time. Now, she found herself in an entryway built on smaller scale than the tomb. It grew colder as she approached the entrance to the tomb complex, passing skeletons, hideous statuary, and other such culturally universal do-not-enter signs. As she walked down a handful of steps to the heavy stone doors blocking the entrance, she could feel them cold as ice to the touch. So it was with an air of resignation, but no real surprise, that she opened them onto a view of a snow covered landscape.

The chill almost took her breath away, poorly equipped as she was to deal with it. Still, the alien, snow covered forest and distant hills that greeted her were undeniably beautiful. Unfortunately, the tomb was too old for her to find useful clothing, much less food, so she would have to cross that landscape to find any sort of help. In addition to her lack of warm clothing, she also had a Metroid's vulnerability to cold, and could already feel it seeping into her bones. Fortunately, she spotted smoke nearby.

Fortunately for her at least, she amended. While smoke could simply be a sign of a settlement or colony, the smoke she saw was the thick, black variety most modern beings had little tolerance for, suggesting a primitive settlement or a scene of tragedy. The latter scenario could be due to either disaster or attack, and brought painful memories of the space pirate attack on Samus's community when she was a child, in which her true parents were murdered. But staying at the tomb was no option. It was difficult to judge the distance, but it couldn't be more than a few miles, probably less.

Deciding to set out immediately rather than wait longer in the cold, Samus started down the steps to ground level, careful to avoid a fall from the snow and ice. At the end of the steps was a stone courtyard filled with snow drifts, and in order to minimize the time spent slogging through it, Samus took advantage of her athletic abilities to leap over the drifts whenever possible. Not only would this speed up her travel, it would reduce heat loss to the snow, and the added exertion would help her stay warm.

She made good progress setting out, but soon realized the cold was affecting her beyond mere pain. First, while she was crossing a frozen river with some care, she began shivering despite her activity. But she truly began to worry when she became aware she had stopped shivering as she was climbing out of a ravine, which she recognized as the onset of hypothermia.

By the time she reached the vicinity of the smoke, she was suffering from poor coordination and mental impairment. Normally, she would have attempted to scout around to ascertain the situation, but she couldn't take the time when she was already suffering the effects of exposure. Therefore Samus could make only minimum attempts at stealth, and literally stumbled out of the tree line.

Silently cursing her body's betrayal, she fell on her hands and knees, and got a first look at her destination. It was a small community which had obviously been attacked recently, with wreckage still smoldering and bodies lying where they fell. Near a destroyed communications array at the other end of the settlement sat a large and well-armed ship; obviously responsible for the attack. Several humanoids milled about the ramp, loading the last of their plunder aboard.

As Samus got off her hands and knees and into a crouch while trying to think enough for a plan, she heard a shout to her left. Turning, she saw two surprisingly humanoid pirates running toward her, weapons in hand. Angry at herself for being caught off guard like a novice, she got up to run, knowing she was in no shape to fight. It was immediately apparent she was in no shape to run, either. Stumbling again, she managed to turn as she fell, and landed on her back, pistol in hand. As the raiders split up to flank her, she tracked the one to her right with her emergency pistol, but her coordination was too far gone and the shot went wide. She didn't have time to line up a second, because the pirate to her left fired a blue bolt that hit her in the stomach, and Samus lost consciousness.

Samus slowly came to lying flat on her back, a hard surface beneath her and something warm against her. She heard voices as well, and as she blinked open her eyes she tried to say something, but it came out as a croak. The warmth vanished, and she guessed that it was a person trying to warm her after her ordeal.

"She's awake!" exclaimed a voice Samus identified as female.

She rose to a sitting position and looked around. The cell she was in wassmall and would have been adequate for herself, but was uncomfortably crowded on account of three other prisoners of two species that were new to her. Two members of one species appeared male and female, with green and blue skin, respectively. They had two large tentacle-like appendages attached to their heads instead of hair, but looked otherwise human. The third individual also appeared female, and could have passed for human except for two antennae sticking from the top of her head. They looked less than clean, though not so worse for wear as she undoubtedly did.

All three were looking at her intently. "Where am I?" she croaked, coughing before she got it out.

The blue one looked uncomfortable. "I think it might be better-"

"A slaver's hold," the woman with antennae broke in, gently.

Samus took a moment to process that. It made a certain sense, although she'd never heard of the Space Pirates taking captives. But then, these were two or three unknown races before her. "Do you know where I just was?" she asked. "It's complicated," she said to forestall obvious questions.

"No," replied the green skinned man. "We were taken from a colony in the outer rim almost a week ago, by my reckoning. You were dumped in here about an hour ago by the slavers, who didn't want to 'waste' bacta on you. Firith and Vaya here-" he gestured at the green and antennae woman in turn. "-are doctors, while I'm a mechanic. I think you were taken in a raid we could hear starting a few hours ago, but you're the only person that was put with our group."

"Probably because you were suffering from hypothermia," said Firith. "With a stunblast on top of it, I'm surprised you made it, but you started improving as soon as you were in out of the cold. I'm still surprised you woke up so fast, to be honest."

Samus wondered at this as well. Usually her constitution made her quite resistant to stun weapons. Did the stun keep her down for that long, or was that from the cold? She decided to save the bacta question for later.

"Pardon me, I'm Teeubo Sivron," said the man. "Firith is my wife." They looked at her expectantly.

While Samus normally would have answered immediately, she thought better of it. If these slavers had any association with the pirates, or any contact with Federation space, really, they might recognize her name. That would catastrophically ruin her chances at an escape. So after a long pause, she simply said "Sandra."

Vaya raised an eyebrow at this. "Just remember Sandra that we're all in this together, and that means we need to trust each other going forward."

Samus shrugged. There wasn't really a good explanation that wouldn't give too much away, and she was too off balance to be a good liar. She had something for the next obvious question, though. "I was inside, swimming, when the attack came. It was nearby, and I didn't take time to change before I ran outdoors and realized my mistake. When I tried to sneak back to stop from freezing to death, I fell right into the lap of two of them."

This at least seemed to satisfy them.

Over the next several days, mostly spent in "hyperspace," Samus learned more about her situation. It was clear that she was not in Galactic Federation space, and that the main governing body, supposedly spanning the galaxy (except the parts the slavers operated in, naturally), was the "Galactic Republic." Samus was afraid her ignorance might be questioned, but everyone assumed she was from some "outer rim backwater."

At no time were the captives allowed to leave their cells, and were instead given food and water by slaves the pirates trusted to do so, who were apparently too beaten down to resist. While she regained some strength from the food, it wasn't enough for her metabolism, and she felt a bit weak, though she was still stronger than any ordinary human. The pirates themselves had apparently forgotten about her for the time being, which was good given what else Samus learned.

Apparently, the slavers had dumped her in with some doctors because the only medical procedure they performed on their slaves was to implant them with tracking devices at the base of their skull. These devices were also paired with a small explosive to further discourage escape. Needless to say, avoiding such a procedure became Samus's number one priority, and she came to question her decision to bide her time.

Eventually, they dropped out of hyperspace for some time, and Samus learned from questioning one of the slaves who brought food that the pirates had reached their base, and were putting the slaves on transports to be sold. The other group, from where Samus had been captured, was being moved first, now that they had been all been implanted, and the group she was with would be next As the pirates entered the holding cells again they remembered Samus's presence.

"Didn't this one belong with the others?" said one pirate, a Nikto, according to her compatriots descriptions.

"You're right," said a human pirate, pulling out a datapad. "No implant, either. We should fix that before the next transport arrives."

"Get up and turn around, human," said the Nikto, leveling his weapon at her as his fellow unlocked the door.

Seeing the cuffs his human compatriot was holding, Samus elected to take a gamble. She made as if to rush him, trying to provoke a response. Sure enough, the pirate fired another blue bolt from his weapon, hitting her square in the chest.

When Samus came to she was being dragged through the corridors, and she was careful not to make any sudden movement. Her plan had been partially successful, it seemed. She had indeed woken up on the way over, showing it was the hypothermia that had kept her under before. But she was also still wearing cuffs, she realized to her dismay. She'd hoped they wouldn't bother with the inconvenience. Still, to make her easier to drag they'd cuffed her hands in front; she could work with that. She struggled to shake off the last effects of the stun blast as they reached the ship's infirmary without letting on she was awake, as she heard doors opening and closing.

"Doc, we got one another one for ya here," said one of the pirates carrying her, after yet another door.

"I thought we were finished," said the "doctor," irritably.

"Some idiot put her in the wrong cell block," the Nikto replied.

"Well, put her on the table so I can get this over with."

"We've already had to carry her all the way from the cells after she got stupid and tried to jump us. Do it yourself." With that, they dropped her feet onto the floor, and she heard the hatch slide closed behind them. Samus could hardly believe her luck.

"Lazy kriffing… Anders, get your hide in here and help me!" yelled the doctor. Samus heard a second set of footsteps, then a voice to match. "What?"

"We have one more. Get her on the table and stand guard."

Samus took that as her cue for action, and as she heard the pirate move closer, she opened her eyes a crack and tensed. As the pirate bent down to grab her, Samus moved, delivering a paired kick to his jaw with legs that could propel her twelve feet straight up. There was an audible crack, and the pirate known as Anders was launched up several feet, with too much damage to determine an exact cause of death without an autopsy.

"Sithspawn!" said the pirate, as Samus used her remaining momentum to jump to her feet, and turned to the doctor. A blue skinned being with four horns, he was reaching for something on his belt. Samus dove at him across the operating table, she tackled him to the ground and sent the device flying. He pulled out a knife with his other hand, a small, scalpel like blade that hummed ominously. He slashed at her face, but she caught his wrist with both hands and turned the blade against him. He had enough wits left to drop it before she could stab him, and the blade cut his cheek as it fell. With nothing left to stop her, Samus grabbed his head in her hands and slammed it into the floor, leaving him insensate. After a moment's deliberation, she plunged the knife into his chest. This was enemy territory; she couldn't let him sound an alarm after coming to. She also admitted to feeling uncharitable toward someone who wanted to put a bomb in her head.

Knowing she had to move quickly, Samus moved toward the first of the pair, who had been properly armed. The manacles she was wearing had a slot that might correspond to an electronic key; searching his pockets, she found a likely candidate. Sliding it in, the restraints opened and fell off her wrists. Samus stripped Anders of his gunbelt first, withdrawing a pistol she tentatively identified as an energy weapon, before strapping on the gunbelt and holstering the pistol. Next she took a short rifle he had been carrying with a shoulder strap, which seemed similar to the pistol. Samus was annoyed at a selector switch labeled in an unfamiliar script. She wasn't comfortable using untried weapons, but decided to switch the toggle, which she assumed had been set for stun, before slinging it over her shoulder. She found several other items in his pockets, but most weren't conclusively identifiable. Some she thought could be drugs, and some might be ammunition, but that wouldn't be too useful given her unfamiliarity with the weapons. Still, she stuffed them in a belt pouch as a precaution and got up, dragging the two pirates out of sight of the door, before taking some knives from near the operating table and moving to the door. The door controls appeared to be a simple switch, so she took a knife in one hand and the pistol in the other, and opened the hatch with her fist.

Both the pirates who'd brought her there were standing beside the door, oblivious to the violence inside. Samus plunged the knife into the Nikto on her left. While she was unfamiliar with his abilities, he surely wasn't as hardy as a Zebesian, and most other sentient species were more than inconvenienced by a knife to the throat. Simultaneously, she backhanded the human guard with the butt of her pistol, before crushing his windpipe with a kick as he went down. She listened for a moment as they died, but heard no sign of alarm. The coast clear for the moment, she pulled their bodies into the infirmary. She considered trying to clean the blood off the floor, but decided it wouldn't be worth the time. The floor was so filthy, cleaning it might draw more attention, she thought while moving into the corridors.

Samus had no idea of her location on the ship, but previous missions had more than prepared her for navigating unfamiliar corridors. Besides, the dark grey walls and widespread corrosion was far more inviting than, say, the volcanic depths of Norfair. Holstering the pistol and sticking the knives in a pouch on her belt, she took up the rifle, since she could hardly expect as favorable a situation as the guards outside the infirmary. The ship was too small for her to pretend to be a pirate, so that left quickly eliminating anyone who spotted her. She decided to head for the bridge first, to ensure the pirates couldn't lock down the ship, and reduce the chance they could execute the slaves. If she was lucky they might even have internal security devices she could make use of.

Listening for a moment, she detected a mechanical hum that had faded into the background soon after her capture, and decided that it was likely the ship's engines. It most likely came from the rear, so she headed in the opposite direction in hopes of getting nearer the bridge, weapon at the ready and senses on alert. Every junction was a possible ambush that had to be scouted, every hatch a potential source of enemies. Samus found herself accustomed, almost comfortable with, the feelings it brought. Alone in enemy territory, not knowing the odds against her. Every time she had been victorious. Although in almost every case, she had her Power Suit, not just some scavenged weapons. That, and the fact that other lives were riding on this particular mission, were the only things that added any real tension. However, she didn't run into anyone on the way, and decided that most of the pirates must be preparing to move the slaves. Seeing a lift, she decided to take it, as a maintenance ladder could take critical time to find.

Inside, she saw standard looking lift controls, although they were labeled in the same unfamiliar script. Samus almost snarled in frustration when she saw a small button clearly labeled in English: "High Galactic." Pressing it, all the buttons flashed into English characters and Arabic numerals. She filed the oddity away for later as she pressed the button labeled "Bridge." She fell into a crouch as the lift lurched upward, and leveled her weapon at the doors.

Moments later, the lift lurched to a stop, and the doors opened onto the bridge. It's walls and ceiling were transparent and afforded a grand view of space, only interrupted by a number of bracing struts encircling it like a cage. Several control consoles were on the floor facing forward, and a command chair stood in the middle. Four beings were on the bridge. One had blue skin and horns like the "doctor," and stood near the command chair in what Samus interpreted as an arrogant pose. Another sat at a console and had bluish green skin, with an enlarged forehead and no hair. The third was another Nikto, standing near the door and beginning to turn. The last was operating another console to the side, and had green skin, spine-like hair, pointy ears, antennae, and a face like a gas mask.

Samus took it all in within a moment, before firing on the guard, who had begun to turn toward the lift with a look of surprise. A short, glowing red lance of energy leapt forth from her weapon, accompanied by a whining bark, and hit the guard in the chest, knocking him back even as it burned him. Samus next targeted the being in the center, assuming him to be the captain, and fired a second shot as the Nikto fell upon the deck, piercing the "captain" where a human had a heart. Seeing the others turning toward the lift as they reached for weapons, Samus leapt out of the lift at as high an angle as she could manage, as there was no room to maneuver within. Sure enough, she sailed over an incoming shot before landing and rolling into cover behind the console she had aimed for. Keeping most of its bulk between her and the uglier of the remaining pair, Samus took a shot at the hairless being who'd fired into the lift; it missed, but her next shot didn't. That left the ugly one, but Samus wanted one of them alive.

She took one of the knives from the infirmary out, and held her gun in her left hand. Popping her head up, she threw the knife toward the pirate before jumping out from behind cover. Given her total lack of training at knife throwing, it was less dangerous than shooting at him, but he had no way of knowing that, and instinctively ducked when he saw the metallic glint heading toward him. As he looked up again, she landed in front of him, and kicked the pistol out of his hand.

"I surrender!" he cried.

"Good," said Samus calmly, while keeping her weapon leveled at his head. "Has the next transport arrived at your base here, and are we on the ground?"

"No and no. The base is on an asteroid circling a gas giant," he said.

"Also good," she said, giving him a dangerous smile. "And before you think of trying anything, I should warn you I just escaped without undergoing your not-so-elective surgery. Furthermore, assuming your compatriots even try to rescue you, I will most assuredly be able to kill you before they succeed. Now disable internal communications."

He slowly lowered his suction tipped fingers to the control console, and rapidly input a series of commands. "Done," he said nervously.

After that, Samus gave a series of commands to the thoroughly cowed pirate. She ordered him first to jam communications to block any attempt to detonate the slave implants. Then she had him vent the pirate's compartments to space, before undocking and leaving the asteroid base at maximum thrust. Once she was satisfied the venting had done its work she ordered the ship pressurized, the lockdown relaxed, and the slaves released. All in all it was successful, although she admitted it could be seen as somewhat ruthless. Still, considering how naked she felt without her suit, she wasn't willing to risk a fight with an unknown number of pirates while wielding unfamiliar weapons. And she doubted any board of inquiry would raise an eyebrow at her actions, considering.

It was five days after Samus's escape that the ship came out of hyperspace in the Alderaan system. Several of the now-former slaves had been pilots and navigators, and it had been decided that Alderaan would be the best destination for everyone as a whole. Being a core world, there would be little chance of running into more pirates, and Alderaan was staunchly anti-slavery. All the core worlds were to one extent or another, but Alderaan was known to actually stand by its platitudes on the matter. Most aboard agreed that Alderaan would likely pay to remove their implants and get them passage home, or let them immigrate if they so desired. All in all it was the best place they could think of for a ship of escaped slaves to go to return to their lives. Or build new ones.

Coming out of hyperspace was tense, given that they were flying what was obviously a pirate vessel. However, after things were explained, Alderaan's (admittedly light) system security refrained from blowing them out of the sky, and escorted them in to land.

Things went as expected, and Alderaan's government was quick to provide humanitarian aid to the former slaves. Brief as most of their time in captivity had been, the experience had been quite traumatic, with some having lost or been separated from loved ones.

Samus had given some thought to her own situation when it came time for her debriefing, as part of the Alderannian resettlement program. Alderaan was, as it turned out, a fairly popular destination for escaped slaves, given their reputation for benevolence throughout the galaxy. This turned out to be entirely deserved; The Alderaan resettlement program was intended to help escaped slaves find their old lives. When this wasn't possible or was simply undesired, they would instead help to start building new ones.

"Your name is Sandra, correct?" said the official, who Samus had to admit seemed more sincere than most government paper pushers she'd met. His name was Cato, and Samus could easily imagine a pair of spectacles over his earnest, bearded face.

"Actually, my name is Samus Aran," she replied, and stayed silent as Cato looked at her curiously. She had no desire to explain, since the real reason she'd made up a name would be met with skepticism at best. Hopefully he'd think she was hiding from her past by making up a name now, a much more likely scenario.

Whatever he thought, he let the matter drop. "Well to start with you'll no doubt be pleased to know there were standing bounties on several of the pirates you, ahh, dealt with. After taxes and other fees, it comes out to 53,000 credits, more than enough to begin a new life. Unfortunately, we've had no further success analyzing the ship's computers," he said kindly. "I'm sorry, but we couldn't find any information on the planet you were taken from. It looks like you'll have to start your life anew."

Samus's heart sank at that. Either the pirates didn't record or didn't properly back up their navigational data, most likely to help avoid prosecution. She'd apparently shot the navigator when taking the bridge, and he and the captain were the only ones who might have known the planet she was found on, since she didn't manage to escape until after the other victims from that world were taken away. Her explanations of why she didn't know herself seemed flimsy to her, but fortunately they seemed to take the obvious lie with good grace, and give her the benefit of the doubt.

In the final analysis; however, it meant she'd lost her suit, unless she could track down the planet herself. It was probably not in most databases, given how far it was on the "outer rim," and she had nothing to go on but the climate and tomb. Finding the planet would certainly require more resources than she currently possessed, even with the reward money. So she'd have to make some sort of life in this galaxy for now, especially as the tomb was the most obvious place to try to find a way home.

Samus made a show of thinking before replying. "Since I don't know where I want to go, I should probably start with what I want to do. Given my success at it so far," she said, hiding a smirk, "I thought I might try my hand at bounty hunting," she said. Cato twitched a bit, obviously uncomfortable with this. "What?"

"Well it's just that, well bounty hunting isn't usually the most respected of professions," he stammered. "It has a reputation for attracting unsavory, mercenary types."

"Ah," she said, wondering about that. In the Galactic Federation, bounty hunters were mostly respected, as the majority worked above board, with successful ones like her taking contracts from the Federation. They were often looked at as heroes. Sure, a few worked for the highest bidder, but they were the exception rather than the rule, and the Federation's positive relationship with most hunters meant they usually were the highest bidder, anyway. Even at the rates a hunter like Samus charged, they were cheaper than the conventional military forces that would otherwise be called in, and Samus herself had further built a reputation for accomplishing "impossible" missions.

"What about law enforcement, then? The tougher, the better," she replied. She had no intention of sticking around, but attending a police academy of some sort could be useful. She needed a bit of time to get to know this world. It seemed unlikely anyone could notice her, but it wouldn't do to take chances. "Preferably cosmopolitan as well, if that isn't too tall an order."

He paused as well, before he got an excited look and replied as well. "Yes, actually. Coruscant. As the center of galactic government and trade, it's the most cosmopolitan place in the galaxy. And as the most densely populated planet in the galaxy, they always need more police."

"Tell me more, then," she said.

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A/N:

This story came about when I realized the almost complete lack of good, or even non-evil bounty hunters in Star Wars, and thought of who would be the obvious candidate to fix that!

As you can find out by looking at my profile, this is my first story. As such, I'm still experimenting a bit. Not in the "experimental literature" way, but in that I'll be trying new things and improving my writing techniques. As such, it's likely that my writing style may evolve a bit as the story progresses.

My friend, Kupo (he doesn't have an account on the site), helped me edit this, and to look out for major Metroid continuity errors. Thank you!


	2. Chapter 2: It's a start

Six months later, Samus was finally going to start bounty hunting again. She had gone to the Coruscant police academy for several months in order to get a basic understanding of the world she found herself in, then dropped out. Afterwards, Samus had moved into a midlevel Coruscant apartment which fit into a comfortable middle ground among the planet's options. Living on Coruscant's surface was only possible for the wealthy, or those that had some sort of arrangement with them, while on the other end of the spectrum, the underlevels of Coruscant were a dystopian slumscape. So really, somewhere in between the two was the only option; fortunately it covered hundreds of levels. In the week since moving in, she'd spent most of her time just getting to know the area, and laying ground work for today.

She put on a jacket she'd picked up used, intended to keep her comfortable without itself sticking out anywhere she was likely to go. It would also bulk out her appearance a bit; to most people only her height was intimidating, and being underestimated could be as much hindrance as help. Her blaster went into a shoulder holster under the jacket to avoid drawing attention on the more respectable levels.

After putting a few other pieces of gear into various pockets, Samus left her apartment to head for the public transit system. While she could afford a used airspeeder, she was trying to save up for a ship, and she doubted she'd buy one that could fit it in the hold. Many of the streets in the underlevels made for difficult flying, anyway.

After taking an array of trams and elevators, as well as a fair bit of walking, Samus arrived at her destination in about a standard hour. It had taken a bit of time to find a bounty hunter bar without prior connections, but eventually someone confided in the "bounty hunting hopeful." She transferred her blaster to a magnetic holster on her hip, as no one without a weapon had any kind of credibility among bounty hunters, before walking into the bar.

Samus was greeted by the vast array of sounds, smells, and sights that comprised one of the galaxy's most dangerous subcultures. Exotic species often seemed to be attracted to the profession, using their natural talents to get an edge up on their quarry, as well as the competition. It also tended to attract independent loners who nevertheless dressed to impress, though for a different sort of crowd than the phrase usually implied. Otherwise it was a typically dark, seedy underlevel bar, where someone cleaned the tables religiously but never anything else. Samus was used to getting some attention and sometimes enjoyed it, but here what attention she got was because her plain clothes marked her as an amateur. Furthermore, in this company a single, standard blaster pistol was less than impressive without a reputation. Samus ignored the unimpressed glances and leers she got as she went to the bar.

"What'll it be?" rumbled the Ithorian bartender, who somehow contrived to wear a thing like a bowler hat.

"Nothing strong. I'm working today," said Samus, before tilting her head at the bounty board. "Speaking of which, I'd like a pad hooked into your network."

"I'll give you a tab, then," he said, moving along.

It was soon after Samus received a data pad to look at over her drink that another bounty hunter came up to her. The Rodian woman had a blaster at her hip and a long rifle slung over her shoulder. Her outfit was a brown jumpsuit with a dark blue vest, and Samus could just make out armor plates sewn into the material, like a reptile's scaly hide.

"Haven't seen you here before. New meat?" she said, her tone playful.

"To bounty hunting, maybe," replied Samus, splitting her attention with the pad. "But I've been in scraps before. What's it to you?"

"I like to take the measure of new hunters," she said, and Samus suppressed a smile. "Find out how serious they are, and look out for those looking to make a few quick credits," she finished, her tone becoming challenging.

Samus just smiled up at her. "I can tell you I'm serious," she said as she put her drink down. "But why do you care?"

She relaxed a bit. "Far too many so-called hunters are little more than thugs, using the name as a veneer of respectability. They don't care about a proper hunt, and line their pockets whenever they have an opportunity."

"I don't care for the hunt specifically, per se," she replied, tilting her head at the woman. "But I don't like the thugs any more than you, and I am a professional."

"Then I hope to see you around," said the Rodian.

Samus just shook her head as the Rodian left, and she put the somewhat strange conversation out of mind and got back to her pad. While a big payday would be nice, she should probably start small, as there'd be less competition from people with more experience hunting in the Republic. Any who weren't snapped up fast would have gone farther to ground than she could dig up without connections. Or left the planet, and she wouldn't have a ship until she made some credits hunting... Samus let out a breath at the circular reasoning before returning to the pad.

 **Nralin: 35000 credit bounty dead or alive**

 **Quarren Male**

 **174 cm**

 **Wanted for 4 murders…**

 **(more) (-)**

Samus skipped past him; exactly the kind of bounty who should have burned atmosphere or been nailed to the wall before she ever read about him.

 **Lilla Kale: 3500 credit bounty alive**

 **Human female**

 **161 cm**

 **Accessory to murder…**

 **(more) (-)**

Worth remembering, but probably more trouble than she was worth, unless she bumped into her.

 **Vidarr Pelles: 6000 credit bounty dead or alive**

 **Devaronian Male**

 **167 cm**

 **Murder…**

 **(more) (-)**

That could be worth a look. Samus tapped the pad to see the rest of the information.

 **Vidarr Pelles is wanted for the robbery and murder of Tiona Dine. Suspect held up Haro and Tiona Dine and demanded their valuables, but was spooked as the latter pulled jewelry case from her purse and shot her. Suspect then fled the scene with their valuables. Police discontinued pursuit and posted a bounty after the subject fled to the underlevels and was not found within 24 hours.**

 **Haro Dine has posted a separate 4000 credit bounty.**

 _ **(Download Files)**_

Samus downloaded the files to her own pad. Vidarr was worth pursuing, but not enough to bring everyone down on his head, especially with the second bounty being a bit less obvious. First she'd see if Haro Dine could shed anything more on the situation.

After finishing her drink, Samus left the bar and went across the street to a public access terminal. She looked up Haro Dine's information, adding parameters for the crime scene as there were at least 2 dozen people by that name listed in his sector of Coruscant. Getting his address, she plugged it into her own pad and started a long journey a quarter of the way around the planet, moving her pistol to her less conspicuous shoulder holster before she got onto public transit.

After about two hours of public transit, Samus debarked from a tram near Mr. Dine's apartment. His apartment block wasn't far below surface level, and Samus's somewhat worn jacket got her a few looks.

Samus walked into the lobby and went to the droid receptionist. "What is it, ma'am?"

"I'd like to speak with Haro Dine about an advertisement he placed on behalf of his wife," said Samus.

"Please wait while I try to get a message to him."

Samus waited while the droid wheeled away into an office with privacy screens. About a minute later the droid reappeared. "Mr. Dine will speak with you via the private terminal here in the lobby."

Giving a curt nod, Samus entered the room once the droid cleared out, and shut the door behind her before activating the privacy screens.

"I assume you're a bounty hunter," said Haro Dine's holographic image, stroking his beard. "You're not quite what I expected."

"And what did you expect?" asked Samus, returning the gesture.

"I don't know," he confessed, running a hand through his hair. "More scars? A blaster rifle? Something other than a young woman. What do you want? I know the bounty hasn't been claimed yet." A suspicious note entered his voice as he crossed his arms. "Were you going to ask for more money?"

"No, although naturally I wouldn't turn it down," she said with a wry grin. "I wanted to get any information you might have that didn't make it into the CSF report, before I conduct my own investigation." At his questioning look, she continued. "The CSF primarily asks for information to identify the guilty party. I need information to find the man we _know_ is guilty. Especially anything you may have learned after they closed their investigation."

"Oh. Well, recently someone contacted me from a lower level com terminal, trying to sell me back what was taken," he said hopefully.

Samus grinned. "That's exactly the kind of lead I hoped to get, and quite a bit better than I expected. Knowing where he sold the items might let me pick up his trail again. Can you get me their contact information?"

"Yes, he gave a bar to meet at, _The_ _Four Eyed Gran_. I still have the address around here somewhere," he said, looking around.

"Good. Why don't we exchange comm codes in case something else comes up? I can be your agent for the meeting and try to get some information as well. I assume the bounty takes priority over what was stolen?" she asked, pulling out her pad.

"Oh yes, of course!"

Samus once more found herself in the underlevels, this time in front of _The Four Eyed Gran_. The bar clearly was too deep for the CSF to care about a small time fence. Samus walked inside, leaving the gun in her jacket, and got a table alone. Then she dug out a red scarf and set it on the table, the signal to the contact that she'd arrived.

She didn't have to wait long before a male Gotal came up to her table and sat down. "You don't look like Haro Dine," he said, cocking his horned head slightly.

"I'm his agent," said Samus, putting her hands together. "You didn't think he'd come himself, did you?"

He shrugged. "Thought he might. Do you have the money?"

"Yes. Do you have the merchandise?" Samus said, feeling like she was in a bad holodrama, and resolving to avoid sounding so cliché in the future.

"Let's take this outside," said the Gotal, nodding. "You wouldn't want to be robbed on the way out after doing business."

"Sure," she said, deciding to humor him. Getting up from the table, she decided to leave the scarf as she followed the Gotal out the door; this bar didn't even hold to the standards of clean tables. From there it was a short walk to a dark, back alley, and Samus was once again conscious of having heard this story before.

"I received several pieces of identification, a datapad, and some pieces of jewelry," said the Gotal, laying the items on a cloth he placed on the cover of a trash bin.

Samus laid a credit chip for the agreed upon payment next to the stolen items, and began to place the items in a satchel she'd gotten for the meeting. Before the fence could turn and leave after taking his money; however, she placed a 500 credit chip on the trash bin. "I'd like to buy something myself. What can you tell me about the man who sold you these, Vidarr Pelles?"

"Why would I tell you, even for 5000 credits?" he demanded, looking _almost_ affronted. "My clients would dry up if they found out I sold information on them."

"Because I'm a bounty hunter who wants to find him. Do you want me to try to find out if there's a price on your head as well?" asked Samus. "But I doubt it would be worth my time over Vidarr, so..."

"Fine. He sold them to me in a Cantina called _The Orange Plate_ ," he said, looking around and behind her nervously. "I didn't buy everything he was selling, though. Is that all?"

Samus saw the Gotal's eyes flicker behind her once more before he tensed up. Guessing an ambush, she crouched down and leapt over his head, with a flip to scan behind her. Sure enough, she glimpsed a figure just moving out of concealment before she righted herself and came down behind the fence. Samus spun around, drawing her blaster as she turned and used the motion to perform a leg sweep on the fence. Samus was drawing a bead on the bodyguard as he turned and fled. The blaster rang out, and a bolt hit behind his feet, spurring him onward. Seeing no further threats, she pointed her blaster at the Gotal still lying on the ground, dazed or in shock.

"I guess you do have a bounty. Needless to say, you made a mistake." said Samus, waiting for him to shake himself out of his daze and look up at her, before thumbing her blaster to stun and shooting the fence where he lay. Samus then checked him for anything she could use for an I.D. before cuffing the man.

It turned out the Gotal had gotten a 3000 credit bounty on his head after fencing some hot property up on the mid-levels. Samus carried him over her shoulder to the tram system to get to one of the vertical shafts used by public transit. Getting a few stares on the way, she stopped in a cantina and poured some cheap booze all over him, and started making an effort to hide the cuffs.

Samus pointedly ignored the stares she got carrying the man over her shoulder as she waited at the platform, before boarding the train with the few other passengers that were there. One group was near her seat, and staring openly and nervously.

"He's passed out drunk, if you smell him. I'm taking him home," she said. After a few sniffs, everyone was satisfied, and Samus sat mostly in peace. The remaining stares were at how handily she carried him over a shoulder.

Eventually she got off at a station by one of the shafts, and sat down at a bench with her "drunk friend," before waving over a police droid on patrol.

"Yes, citizen?" it said to her, before staring down at the Gotal. "My chemical receptors detect more than trace signatures of alcohol on this man. This is an indicator of public drunkenness, a misdemeanor," it said officiously.

Samus pulled out her Republic Certificate of Deputization, effectively a bounty hunter's license, and presented it to the droid. "Well then I guess he'll be fined before going to prison. I'm collecting his bounty."

"Please wait here," it said before stepping away and activating a commlink.

After finishing the paperwork that was the hardest part of that particular hunt, Samus got on yet another tram and headed for _The Orange Plate_ , her mood slightly soured by the 200 credits in "processing fees" at the station.

Arriving, Samus went to speak to the bartender. "I'm looking to do business with a Devaronian man, name of Vidarr. I was told I could meet him here."

"He's not in right now," he said. "Might be back in a few hours, but I couldn't say for certain."

"I'll wait. My client was rather insistent," said Samus.

Samus was beginning to get a little bored after nursing a glass for three hours, but finally, Vidarr Pelles walked in the door of _The Orange Plate_. As he looked around, Samus waved him over, and Vidarr cautiously headed for her table.

Samus had spent some of the intervening hours thinking of how to get him to lower his guard. But by the time he showed up, she was feeling a little bit impatient, and didn't have a clever plan that didn't require more research or violate the K.I.S.S. principle. So as he pulled back a chair to sit down, Samus drew her pistol and shot him with a stun blast.

The bar stilled in an instant. All eyes on her, Samus lowered the blaster just enough that it wasn't pointing at anyone specifically, and made a point of switching from stun, the click audible in the silence. Without a word, Samus hoisted her bounty up onto her left shoulder one handed, blaster steady all the while. She then stood and met the gaze of everyone in front of her, making no more threatening moves.

After a few more tense moments, the patrons began pointedly ignoring her as they went back to drinks and conversations, and Samus left some credits on the table as she went out the door, Vidarr still over her shoulder.


	3. Chapter 3: Goals

Samus watched from across the street as her quarry made an order at a diner. Phev didn't seem aware that he was being watched. Overall, Samus thought an herbivorous species like the Ithorians would have better instincts to watch for predators; but then, hacking ("slicing" she mentally corrected herself) didn't help to sharpen real-world survival instincts. He must have thought he'd given her the slip in the underlevels. Or it was possible she wasn't reading him right. Ithorians distinctive flattened hammerheads were difficult for anyone outside their species to read, excepting the most obvious cues.

Now she had to wait for him to leave without being made. While she could just walk in and pinch him, he might cause trouble, and it was frowned upon for bounty hunters to operate too openly on the surface. She was halfway tempted to just walk back and forth across the street and try to blend in with the pedestrians, but she wouldn't count on even a slicer to be that blind when he knew he had a bounty hunter after him.

Samus's train of thought was interrupted by the fluted door chime of the shop behind her, and she glanced over her shoulder to see a customer walk out, a protocol droid in tow. Looking for a moment at the shop, _Tidewater Droids_ , she decided to adapt the old trick of ordering coffee ("caf") across the street.

Walking in, the first thing she noticed was the tiled floor polished enough to see her reflection, even near the entrance. A flutter of movement passed at floor level cross an aisle further away, and she guessed that it was a minor product demonstration. Her second impression was that the store seemed like a cross between a hardware store and a mannequin shop, with humanoid and quasi-humanoid models of all description interspersed with blocky or rounded shapes that escaped easy classification. She'd wondered if the droids would literally try to sell themselves, and was grateful that nearly all stood motionless. She could hardly imagine a more irritating store to browse in.

Moving along the front window of the store, she made a show of looking over the variously shiny droids there and their specifications, in hopes of looking like a real customer, and occasionally shooing off several salesdroids that came to bother her.

It was a little while later, after Phev had begun digging into his meal, that she saw another figure moving toward her. Glancing, she saw it was a living employee this time, a Mon-Calamari woman. It seemed her loitering had drawn some attention.

"Is there something we can help you find?" she said. The woman was about two heads shorter than Samus herself, and dressed in the same green livery as the droids from before. Her nametag said "Kat" in Aurabesh characters.

"I don't know," Samus replied. "I was trying to mix browsing with staking out a man at the diner across the street. The browsing has kind of dropped off, though, now that I've run out of anything near these windows, so maybe you could suggest something. I'm a bounty hunter," she finally supplied, when her explanations were met by a nonplussed blink of the woman's large eyes.

"Oh. We'll, we don't have any combat models of droids, if that's what you were looking for," she said. "They're only legal under the most stringent of regulations, especially after that unpleasantness on Naboo. Most people interested go to an arms dealer for them, instead. And assassin droids are illegal across the board."

Samus wished she could devote her undivided attention to the conversation, so that she could come up with more suggestions. This line of reasoning, ironically, brought one of its own. "What about something I could use for reconnaissance? Given what you've just told me, I doubt any sort of real spy droid is legal, but I bet you'd have something with basic autonomy and a holocam."

She was quiet for a moment, evidently thinking. "We do have some surveyor droids, for mapping out an area. They have high resolution holocameras to get a map of an area from the air. There're a few similar models designed to cover sporting events, but we don't carry those in stock, as they're even more of a specialty market. Oh, and similar to the survey droids, we have a few probe droids in stock. They're a bit more independent than the surveyors, and probably more what you'd want. Although I'd caution you to look up any applicable laws on Coruscant." This last was delivered in a tone suggesting it was mostly said to cover her ass.

Samus grunted approval. "Well those I'd be interested in. Could you upload whatever information you have on them to my pad?" she said, pulling it out and setting it down. "I may not purchase one immediately, as I'm trying to acquire a starship, which obviously requires quite a bit of capital."

The woman looked thoughtful at that, as she uploaded the requested information. As Samus pocketed her pad once more, she spoke again, hopefully. "We do carry a variety of astromech units." At Samus's questioning glance, she continued. "Astromechs are designed primarily for maintenance duties aboard starships and Starfighters," she said, gesturing at a display model that looked like some sort of techy, mobile trashcan. "They have a variety of tools within their chassis that can be swapped out as needed, and can move around the hull of a ship in vacuum and zero gravity with their maglock wheels. They also can store hyperspace navigation data for starfighters with low computer memory, and assist with hyperspace jump calculations. Finally, they're capable of flying a starship as well or better than any automatic pilot system. Our most popular model is the R2 line, for its added degree of potential customization, as well as a helpful personality and reputation for reliability."

Phev looked just about finished eating. "That does sound useful, but I'm going to have to cut this short. I'll look at what you sent me and be back later to take a look at what you have. Maybe even come back for an astromech when I get a ship. But right now I need to earn some more money towards that ship," she said. Moments later Phev finished his meal and was just waiting to pay; Samus needed to be in place to get him when he left. "You can even watch if you want. Don't worry, I'm bringing him in alive," she hastily added at Kat's concerned expression.

Leaving the store, Samus moved a little down the street, so she wouldn't be crossing within Phev's line of sight, before she jaywalked across the road; she doubted it would meaningfully worsen the image of bounty hunters. Then she walked up near "Dexter's Diner" and stood near the corner, in time to see Phev get up and approach the door. Samus waited to see which way he'd go coming out the door, and as he turned away from her, she started walking toward him, fast enough to catch up without, she hoped, drawing his attention.

He didn't notice she caught up and put a hand on his shoulder in a friendly manner. "Phev, fancy meeting you up here!" she said sweetly. Surprised, he started to turn towards her, and Samus let him turn just enough to see the hand resting on her hip above her holstered blaster before she tightened her grip on his shoulder. "I heard your last slicing job landed a bounty on your head," she said more quietly, smiling as his hammerhead drooped.

It was as quiet as it got in _The Mark_ , one of the less rough and tumble bounty hunter bars on Coruscant. Samus went there to take a quick look at the latest jobs while getting a drink, and ran into Neeshar and a human hunter named Dengar who was passing through.

"Another successful hunt?" said the Rodian by way of greeting, raising a glass filled with a liquid the color of the sky. That is to say, a "normal" blue sky, not that of Coruscant.

"Yes. He thought he shook me off in the underlevels," she said, taking a seat at their table. "I followed him to a diner on the surface, waiting for him to drop his guard, and then walked up and gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder as he came out. He came quietly to the local CSF station."

"Nice. Hope the stakeout wasn't too long. Waiting's worse than gettin' shot at," said Dengar. Samus had met him a few times before, and was still privately speculating on why he always had something wrapped around his head. Was it cultural, or perhaps a disfiguring injury?

"Waiting has a great and noble place in the hunt. Some would even say it is necessary for a true hunt," said Neeshar, primly. "But I admit that I do find the tracking and confrontation more to my liking," she said, looking down at her glass. Samus couldn't quite identify her expression; she sometimes found Rodians difficult to read. They didn't have the same facial muscles as humans, nor an array of feathers like the Chozo who had raised her.

Samus reached for a glass on the table and held it in front of Neeshar, who obligingly began to pour. "It wasn't too bad. I watched from a droid shop across the street, learned about some droids that have potential. An astromech droid would be good for when I get a ship, and I think a recon droid might be good right here on Coruscant."

The Rodian scowled and stopped pouring, glass half full. "A recon droid is cheating."

Samus drank from the glass anyway, unperturbed. "Technically a probe droid, but your reaction suggests they're effective. Where do you draw the line, anyway? You don't say blasters are cheating, and it's not like they're part of your people's ancient and noble hunting tradition."

"One does not use a machine to do their hunting for them!" she replied slowly, leaning forward.

"Doubt it'd be so easy," Dengar cut in. "They're not too bright."

"I really just want it for stakeouts like that one," said Samus, rolling her eyes at the self-satisfied expression Neeshar put on. "It'd be nice to have eyes on back exits and such. Just give myself more options. On another topic, are astromechs really all that?"

"If you get a ship, maybe," said Dengar, taking a sip of his own drink. "Why are you so hot for one, anyway? Coruscant's a big pond. Personally, I just hop from system to system on a transport when I get bored."

"Because I don't much like the pickings here," she said. "I've just taken a dozen low level bounties over the past 8 months. All the really interesting bounties get out as fast as they can, what with the Jedi being based here, or burrow so far into a hole I'd need industrial mining equipment to find them. The leftover jobs are a bit farther under the table than I like to reach."

At Dengar's raised eyebrow, Neshar piped up. "Samus has an overdeveloped sense of honor. I think she always wanted to be a Jedi when she was a child," she said teasingly

Samus took another drink. "Hardly. I can barely stand to take orders from any authority figure, much less follow someone around and call them 'master."

"Which makes it funny that you care so much about their laws," the Rodian replied.

"More about justice. It's not like I intend to follow the letter of the law with regards to customizing a ship," she said, smiling.

"What kind you want?" asked Dengar. "Maybe a fighter? Cloakshapes are supposed to be cheap."

"Wait, I thought cloaking devices were just a rumor?" said Samus, raising an eyebrow.

"Far as I know," he shrugged. "I didn't 'em that."

"All the holodrama bounty hunters flit around in snubfighters," spat Neeshar. "It's ridiculous. Not only are they no good for carrying your gear, but how would you transport a live bounty?"

"So what do you suggest? A freighter?" remarked Samus.

"They can actually work pretty well," said Dengar.

At Samus's incredulous look, Neeshar leaned forward and continued for him. "A small one, at least. Something like a courier, certainly not much bigger. They're in the same speed and maneuverability class as many fighters, and the internal space gives you lots of room for upgrades to their combat ability. The main issue is that they make big targets, and you'll have to upgrade them to the standards you want."

"So you're saying a freighter is the best ship for a bounty hunter," said Samus, clearly still skeptical. "Not something military?"

"For now, yes," assured Neeshar, easing backwards. "Military and police system patrol craft are a more ideal choice, but they're expensive, and hard for private citizens to lay hands on. Whereas freighters are relatively cheap, and as smugglers can attest, can often be upgraded into formidable combat craft. There's often a tradeoff in reliability, though, especially if you tinker with core systems like the engines and hyperdrive without a professional's help."

"Well," said Samus, finishing her drink. "Guess I'll have to look into that."

Later that day, Samus returned to the droid shop and bought a probe droid for a few thousand credits. It was a disk a bit larger than a dinner plate, with a holocam on the front designed to pivot up and down, and a pair of manipulator arms designed to use basic sampling equipment. It would follow verbal commands from its master, or respond to encrypted signals from a control unit. Samus decided to test it later by setting it to follow her during her day. But at the moment, it was getting into evening, and there was a diner just across the street. Bounty hunter bars weren't ideal places to get a bite to eat.

Overall, the diner had a pleasant atmosphere. Most of the bars she'd been going to, whether to look up bounties or catch them, had a dark and seedy atmosphere. It was getting to be cliché, and Samus was beginning to suspect it was deliberate. Not only was the diner a nice change of pace in that respect, but she found the menu had items she could readily identify as food; on cosmopolitan Coruscant that was no small feat. Samus left vowing to return to _Dex's Diner_ in the future.

With no bounty as of yet, Samus was going to use the time to look at some starships. She'd asked around at the bar and done a little digging of her own, and decided to take a first look at _Doneta's Starships_. It had a wide selection of light freighters, couriers, and even Starfighters. It had such trusted brands as Corellian Engineering Corporation, Haor-Chall, and Mon Calamari Shipyards, as well as an in-house shop that would perform customizations to the ship's layouts before the ship was sold, significantly reducing the cost of such services. She couldn't yet afford all the modifications she wanted, but many were likely less than legal, regardless. She'd have no choice but to go to underground mechanics, or learn to do them herself.

 _Doneta's Starships_ was about 100 levels down, but had hanger access to one of the vertical wells providing access to the lower levels. Stepping down onto the floor of the main hanger, she took a moment to take in the cavernous place. The entrance to the hanger from the well was a large, open space, with several craft parked and on display, or waiting to be flown away. Past this area was a deep, wide access corridor that stretched some ways into the distance. Along the sides of this access corridor were multiple levels of landing pads, staggered slightly to allow them to be seen more easily. Moving along this corridor were repulsorlift pods, reminiscent of those Samus had seen in holos of the Senate chambers, so that customers could easily view the ships and dock at their platforms.

Samus beckoned to a salesman, who approached her. "How can we help you find what you're looking for?" said the human in formal clothing.

"I need a ship that's fast, well-armed, well-shielded, has cargo space, and is affordable." Waiting a beat as the salesman suppressed a gulp, she continued, "But since that's impossible, I'll settle for the last two and get the rest in future upgrades. I'm a bounty hunter, you see."

"Oh. A bounty hunter," he said, seeming relieved. At Samus's raised eyebrow, he explained, "That sounded a lot like what a smuggler would want. Or a starship thief. As you can imagine, it would raise some red flags. May I pass along your credentials to my manager to avoid any unpleasantness?"

She simply handed over her Certificate of Deputization and let the man run it through a scanner before proceeding.

"Excellent. If you could step aboard one of our pods, I think I have some ideas in mind." He gestured to follow, and they stepped aboard one of the pods and lifted off. Samus could see it had a simplified control scheme that would be quite crude outside the hanger's controlled environment.

"First let me show you the Corellian Engineering Corporation's HWK-290," he said, as they floated toward a sleek ship with a brown and red color scheme. Its body resembled a raptor's beak, with two flattened engine pairs making a set of wings ant twin vertical tails at the rear. "While it has decent shielding, the main feature of this model is speed. It's actually faster than some older generation starfighters, and nearly as maneuverable. Cargo space is a bit less than normal, but that's a tradeoff of speed, and of course a full load reduces the maneuverability somewhat."

"Armament?" said Samus, as they disembarked the pod and walked closer. She couldn't see any, and there didn't seem to be much internal space for anything concealed.

"I'm afraid it doesn't have any, as it relies mostly on speed. It has the power to spare, and a pair of forward cannons is a popular aftermarket upgrade," he said, pointing at an empty space behind the cockpit area.

"So it's a sort of fighter/freighter combination," she surmised, as he opened up the ship for a look inside. The cockpit was fairly roomy, with space for a pilot and co-pilot to sit in a sort of mixed tandem/parallel configuration. The forward view was a bit lacking, though compensated for by an ample navigation display and excellent side and top viewports. However, exploring the rest of the ship showed that, as she had suspected outside, there wasn't much internal space. There was just enough room for a pilot and co-pilot to sleep, and a miniaturized bathroom (fresher, she corrected). Cargo space was also fairly limited; while there might technically be many tons of cargo capacity comparable to other freighters, volume was quite limited. Any bounties she had to transport back to their star systems would likely be less than comfortable, probably unable to stand; she was uncomfortably reminded of the slave ship she'd been on, which had apparently been a rather roomy example.

"Let's see what else there is," she said, interrupting the salesman.

After the HWK-290 there was quite an array of ships to follow. The YV-666 had an impressive cargo hold and was decently maneuverable, but also had no stock armament and only adequate maneuverability. It was also but ugly with an asinine internal layout requiring a ladder to disembark. The salesman skipped over a Kuat _Rainhawk_ class transport after she made that observation.

The KR-TB "Doomtreader" was suitably intimidating, and had the impressive armament, shielding, and armor to match, but was currently outside her price range by a factor of three.

A Nubian Defense Collective _Conqueror_ -class police ship caught her eye, with it's sleek lines, solid armament, and ludicrous engine count, but she'd been informed they were only sold in lots to planetary police forces, with _Doneta's_ acting as middleman.

The Deepwater class freighter was representative of the Mon Calamari designs, and boasted an impressive backup shield system, although armament was light. Samus was also in love with the fact that it double as a submersible, although she realized the double hull would make it more difficult to modify. Submersibles were in some ways more complicated than starships, in this day and age.

The YT series of freighters had much to offer, being generally affordable, and popular for their modularity. Most had one or more defensive turrets, although they would be hard to operate alone, and shields were generally lacking in their stock configuration.

The HT-2000 was rather slow, with a merely adequate armament, but it had a notably impressive hold. It would be ripe for future upgrades, and she might even be able to stuff a Starfighter in one of it's cargo bays and modify it to launch in space. It was a shame it looked like a brackish tuning fork.

Overall, she had several good options when she disembarked the pod, and the salesman was interrupted by the beeping of a commlink. "Terribly sorry, but that's a message from my manager. I don't know why they'd interrupt us…" he trailed off, looking at the message. "Interesting. Apparently you're eligible for some sort of discount," he said, furrowing his brow. "Would you like to discuss it in the office?" he said, back to normal.

Samus just nodded and followed the salesman, who headed for an office along the edge of the cavernous hanger's entrance.

Samus followed him inside and to a conference room that could easily seat a dozen sentients. However, the only occupant was a Gran, who by the cut of his clothes Samus marked as the salesman's boss's boss, with possibly a few other iterations thrown in. The salesman himself was obviously surprised, but nevertheless left promptly at a gesture from the Gran. As the door closed behind him, the privacy screens on the windows of the conference room darkened.

Samus put a hand on a chair while facing the man. "So I take it you want to offer me a job?"

* * *

A/N: So it's actually a Surronian Conqueror in the EU, but I really liked the ship, and couldn't fit it in here with the sourcebook info on the manufacturer. I think the design looks similar to the Nubian vessels used by the Naboo, though. What can I say, I'm the kind of nerd who spends way too much time on Wookiepedia doing "research."

If this chapter didn't have enough timeline hints, there will be more somewhere in the next few chapters. I just don't want to say it right out, since of course Samus can't use the movies as a frame of reference, but can only go off events in a universe which isn't her own.


	4. Chapter 4: Freedom

Samus tried to take the measure of the Gran before her, but found she lacked the experience with his three eyed species to get beyond the signs of his station; that he must be wealthy, and presumably, a shrewd businessman with all that implied.

"Yes, I would like to offer you a job. Although I'd hoped to be able to tell you that with a bit more drama." he rumbled, sounding a bit miffed.

Not sure what to say, Samus just shrugged and offered a faint grin.

"To business, then," he said, his pace starting to speed up. "I need you to retrieve a stolen speeder and make my displeasure clear. I own several repair and aftermarket garages, serving vehicles from speeders to starships," he said, gesturing in the direction of the hanger she'd just left. "One of them was quite recently raided by thieves from the Red Rancors, a gang pushing up from the underlevels. They took exception to my policy of not paying protection money on some of my underlevel properties. They injured several of my employees in the attack, one of whom is in critical condition, and made off with several speeders from the garage. All of these things are unacceptable," he said, low and dangerous. "One of the speeders taken was a custom yellow XJ-6 airspeeder, belonging to Senator Greyshade. I can't afford for him to find out this has happened, which leaves me unable to use my usual channels to get the CSF to respond."

"Why would the Senator really care?" she enquired.

"It's his personal airspeeder. He uses it almost exclusively, and has obsessively upgraded it for racing. And as a Senator, he naturally has more ways to express his displeasure than simply taking his business elsewhere," he explained.

"Okay. Do you have any idea where the Rancors took the speeder? Or at least a place to start, like the gang's territory, or is this a wild goose chase?" she asked, crossing her arms.

He took a moment to mentally translate the unfamiliar turn of phrase before answering. "I can get you access to the Underworld Police files on their territory, and I can also tell you the direction they fled with the speeder. Would that be enough?"

Samus doubted they would have made a real effort to disguise their return journey. The police were unlikely to assault one of their strong points, not over this. "It will have to do. What are you offering?"

"I'm prepared to offer 30,000 credits," he said.

"45,000," she shot back. Before he could protest, she continued. "I have to find their garage, which is almost certainly a strong point, and get the speeder out intact. I will have to fight or evade an unknown number of hostiles to get the speeder in the first place. Not to mention the time pressure before it's damaged or they identify it."

"And if I hire another bounty hunter willing to take the job?" he finally got out.

"You won't. Certainly not in time," she said. "Especially if you know so little about the process that you just pulled a bounty hunter in off the floor. Besides, I'll just take the money and spend it on one of your starships. So overall you'll lose less money."

"35,000 then. I have no guarantee you'll buy a ship from here."

Samus considered for a moment, and another idea came to her. "I'll accept that much, but only if I get a shot at the _Conqueror_ you have out there, and one of your shops modifies it for free." At his expression of denial, Samus continued. "Only to the interior layout and fittings, for a value of about 5000 credits. I won't try to get you to throw in major upgrades to the engines, weapon, etc. Although I will ask for some droid interface control systems; the droids to be supplied by me."

He paused to consider himself, briefly. "I haven't sold any of those in years with that policy," he muttered. "Agreed. So, do I draw up some kind of legal agreement?"

Samus had to resist putting a hand to her forehead. "No. I'm no legal expert, but I very much doubt we want a written record of this. This is simple enough for a verbal agreement."

The Gran extended his mottled hand, and Samus shook it.

Samus considered her first order of business to be getting more equipment. Right now she had a blaster pistol at her hip, a holdout blaster in her jacket, and some binders. It was all she needed for most of the bounties she'd so far pursued, but it wasn't enough to take on a whole gang. So she took an airtaxi to a place at a slight remove from her apartment, to raid her weapons cache.

It was removed from her apartment because of the items she now wanted to retrieve, namely explosives. It was rather imprudent to store demolition charges under one's bed, after all, so she hid them in a fairly discreet storage facility a few minutes away, on foot. Some of its contents she'd gotten off the criminals she'd caught, while others she'd purchased from black market suppliers. She left the few blaster rifles she had, as they might draw attention getting to the target. Instead she holstered a heavy blaster pistol in her jacket; it had nearly the power of a rifle, and its maneuverability would be better than a rifle's extended range in the close quarters she expected. The only reason she didn't carry one constantly was that they were illegal on Coruscant; of course, that was unenforceable where she'd be going. Next she took out a variety of things that went boom; specifically explosive concussion grenades, flashbang grenades, smoke grenades, and finally a handful of demolition charges. These she packed carefully into a backpack, along with a combat harness with pouches to carry them into combat. She also took a few extra power cells for the heavy blaster pistol, and a gas mask for use with the smoke grenades. With the equipment procured, Samus checked that her recon drone, ES-31, was fully charged, before setting out for the nearest piece of gang territory on the course away from the shop.

An airtaxi took her to one of the great wells into Coruscant's depths, and descended further into the abyssal depths of the planet. By the time she debarked at a landing platform, the taxi's headlamp seemed a paltry thing indeed. This particular well was close enough to her destination that she continued on foot. The people around her changed too, often traveling in groups, their postures wary. They became warier still as Samus passed, conscious of a predator prowling the duracrete jungle.

Finally Samus approached the Red Rancor's territory. Her plan was simple; find a gangster and shake them down for information. While civilians might well know where to find her target, she doubted they'd be willing to talk for fear of the reprisal, and she wasn't about to rough them up for information. The gang's members were another story.

First she had to find them, and to that end she activated ES-31. It might not be intelligent enough for independent thought, but it could follow complex verbal commands through a commlink, and transmit picture as well as text based information.

"31, I want you to begin a search pattern, centered around my position, for armed groups or individuals engaged in violence. Go dark and avoid sightlines while staying above streetlights." While the droid may not be intended for such subterfuge, Samus decided to see what happened. Hopefully its lights being off and the general darkness of the underlevels would help conceal it.

ES-31 flitted up into the darkness as Samus moved into Red Rancor territory. She tracked the droid as it flitted around, but it soon left her line of sight, leaving her pleasantly surprised at its performance. She walked with purpose, her bearing a challenge to those who held the territory.

As it turned out, the challenge was unnecessary. Samus's commlink pinged, and she checked her datapad. 31 had found a trio of toughs moving a few streets over. Their arrogant stride confirmed to Samus they were the ones she sought. She brought up a map of where 31 had traveled, and began moving towards the group. Before she could get within earshot, she took out her commlink. "31, shadow them on their left. When I ping you through the commlink, flash your spotlight at them, then turn it off when they look and pull back."

Orders delivered, Samus positioned herself in the cover of a long abandoned trash bin at the mouth of an alley the trio would pass. As they passed by, and had given the alley a cursory look, Samus stood and pinged her commlink. The heads of the gang members whipped around as ES-31's spotlight flashed at them. As they cried out and searched for whoever had dazzled them, Samus came up from behind.

As she passed behind the first thug, she dropped him with a light stun blast. It was quieter, and she couldn't be certain of their identity. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be ready to fire again for another second. So as the other two began to turn, she grabbed the middle one by his collar and threw him into his companion, sending them to the ground. Before they could disentangle themselves, she stunned the one on top. The man on the bottom then reached for his own blaster, but Samus kicked it away, before throwing away the blaster of her erstwhile missile.

"Who the kriffing hell are you!" said the thug, as he shoved off his companion. Samus kept him covered as she searched the first thug she'd taken down for weapons.

"I'm a bounty hunter. Obviously. But I'm not after you, just information," she said, discarding a blaster and vibroblade. "But first, I want this a little more private, so you're going to drag your friend here into that alleyway. Then you can answer my questions and I'll be on my way."

"You didn't say anything about _us_ going on _our_ way," he said, not moving.

"No, but then, I probably wouldn't have used a stun setting if I was going to shoot you in the head when I was finished," she said reasonably. "You'll get to take a nice, peaceful nap, and hope you aren't too unpopular with anyone who happens by. Now move," she said, gesturing with the blaster towards the alleyway she'd emerged from.

The thug took his friend by the boots and dragged him into the alleyway. Samus took her second prisoner and slung him over her shoulder, keeping one hand free and an eye on her prisoner. As they reached the alley, she dumped the man none too gently out of sight behind the cover she'd hidden behind herself, before taking out a pair of binders. "Hands against the wall," she said, holstering her pistol to give him a pat down. "And remember that if you try anything, I can get my info from your friends as soon as they wake up one short." She took a vibroblade without incident and cuffed his hands behind him, before turning him around and forcing him into a sitting position.

"Now how about you cooperate, and you can wake up in an alley with your friends, hmmm?" she asked, looming over him. It wasn't very difficult, as she was already taller than he was, never mind he was reluctantly sitting. "I just want to know where one of your hideouts is."

"I'm not gonna talk to the law, and you can't make me," he said, trying to spit at her. It fell on the ground between them, for all that she was only a meter away.

"Well bounty hunters aren't the law, really," she said, crouching down to meet his eye. "Anymore than this is a proper interrogation room with cameras and witnesses," she said with a predatory smirk. After giving him a moment to squirm while that sank in, she continued. "Besides, just because you won't talk, doesn't mean your friends won't."

"They won't talk!" he said, glaring at her.

"And if you already had? I can just stun you, wait for one of them to wake up, and ask them to 'confirm' what their friend already told me," she said, letting it sink in. An uneasiness appeared in his expression, confirming it was getting to him. Before it could change to denial, she spoke again. "Or, you could tell me where to find your nearest airspeeder garage, and you can all wake up from a nap together, with them none the wiser."

A look of confusion passed over his face. "Airspeeder garage? We don't have an airspeeder garage anywhere near this district, let alone this level. Boosting speeders is a Red Rancor sideline, not part of our gig."

Samus looked nonplussed for a moment, before turning into an expression of forced cheer. "Well that's embarrassing. My info was bad; I thought you were Red Rancors. In that case, I'm guessing you wouldn't mind telling me where to find their base so I can spring an unpleasant surprise on them?" she asked hopefully.

A short round of questions, some stun blasts, and a half hour walk later, and Samus was nearing the Red Rancor's base, while mulling over her mistake. It seemed the police map of gang territories was weeks or months out of date; she might be better served finding underworld contacts in the future. Still, it wasn't the first time she'd gone into a mission with bad or no intel. At least she could be reasonably certain no one was actively lying to her, this time.

This section of the city was more reminiscent of a traditional one. Each "block" was a slice of tower, roughly ten stories in depth. It was impossible to tell where one building truly began and another ended, but superficially, the towers and skyscrapers in the area were consistent and dense enough that they had metal streets between them. A ceiling ten stories up made up the underside of another street. The overall effect was that of a conventional metropolis's downtown layered one atop another.

People walked the streets, which were lined by shops and businesses, while some "blocks" were massive apartment complexes. But thousands of levels below the surface, many of the shops were closed, and for the most part only seedy cantinas and dirty apartments remained. Ragged pedestrians of a multitude of species moved through the streets with a kind of diffuse motion driven by a need to clump together for safety while constantly on guard against each other. An aura of fear and despair hung over these streets that had not seen the sun in over a thousand years.

Samus stuck out like a lantern among candles. Her clothing, while hardly fine, was nevertheless finer than the norm, and she was cleaner and better kept. She might have been a target for thieves or muggers, except that she was also obviously armed, and moving with purpose. Most scavengers instinctively avoided a predator on the prowl.

Convenient though this was, she realized it was a double edged sword. Some of the gang members in the area were noticing her as well, and had certainly noticed her heading toward their base. Which meant ghosting past their defenses was likely a lost cause. Further adding to her difficulties, the population on the streets was thinning out as she approached, though she wasn't sure if the gang presence was directly responsible.

Coming into sight of the gang's headquarters, Samus knew getting would be difficult. Like the other quasi-buildings in the area, it stretched from street to ceiling. Sending the recon droid to take a look, it looked like it had once been an office complex or apartment, with regular windows on almost every level. At street level; however, was a landspeeder parking entrance, the garage apparently repurposed by the gang for their needs. About seven or eight floors up was a hanger like entrance, where the airspeeders were kept. Sending the drone in for a closer look, Samus found that windows along one side let her see into the hanger, and ordering the droid to look through them, she caught a glimpse of a yellow airspeeder resembling her target. It appeared undamaged, so she ordered the droid to continue surveying the building.

The ground floor had main entrances on two opposite faces, with the garage on a third. The fourth face opposite the garage had several businesses, most abandoned, except for a cantina that was apparently left to the sole use of Red Rancor members. Several service entrances and emergency exits could also be seen as well. Guards were in evidence, with four visible on the main entrances, likely a declaration of power as much as an actual security force. They didn't show military discipline, but taking them out quietly wasn't going to happen. Likewise, the garage had a pair of guards and was in constant use. Finally, most of the service entrances and exits were unguarded, but some were, and the guards were in view of each other, as were the unguarded doors, which were likely locked as well.

Her first plan was to simply walk up to a guard, causing a distraction to draw attention away while she took him out. If she hid him inside, his absence might not be noticed, and a relatively undisciplined gang would likely assume he was shirking, rather than sound the alarm like a military force. But as she approached the building in person, she realized there were too many eyes on her. Just setting up the distraction would be difficult. Samus was trying to find an alternate strategy, knowing she couldn't fight her way through the entire gang, when she noticed the darkened windows from floors 4 to 6, and a new plan came to her.

Now the thin crowds would work to her advantage, as they would doubtless flee when the shooting started, and were too few for people to be hurt in the rush, so long as she kept crossfire to a minimum. A block from the base, Samus darted into the lobby of a building and saw it was currently deserted, then ducked behind a counter to remove her pack and jacket. Next she sleeved an ascension gun unit onto her left arm, and put on her harness for securing grenades. She transferred the grenades from backpack to pouches before she clipped the demolition charges to her belt at the small of her back. Now fully equipped, she slung the pack with the jacket onto her shoulders and walked back out the door.

Moving quickly but not running, Samus headed for one of the service entrances near the corner of the building nearest the garage, from the side bearing one of the main entrances. As the gang members following her realized she was hostile and began shouting, Samus drew her pistol and blasted the guard at the service entrance, before throwing a smoke grenade toward the main entrance to block their view of the proceedings. As she had turned sideways toward them, she made sure to get her two pursuers in her angle of vision and saw the rodian lining up a shot. The pedestrians had begun to flee and would be out of the way in seconds, but for the moment she didn't have a clear shot. So she leapt into the air, over the heads of the crowd, and sent a pair of shots at them. The snap shots missed, but they came close enough to further spoil the aim of the thug trying to track her arc, and his shots missed her while sailing over the remaining pedestrians. She came down and began sprinting for the steps of the service door for cover against the four guards at the entrance, as the smoke took precious seconds to fully disperse. While her pursuers dashed towards a parked landspeeder, the guards realized she was going for cover and began to fire. Samus again leaped, this time towards the safety of the stairs, while dropping another smoke grenade to block the view of her pursuers. The volley passing beneath her, and Samus landed with the stairs between her and the guard's shots. Now she turned again, and started firing at the two now behind the landspeeder.

A pistol wasn't ideal for providing suppressive fire, but against the thugs it was sufficient; she dropped another smoke grenade at the corner of the building, and added another between her and the four guards; she couldn't afford for the gang to see her next move, and needed all the cover she could get. The thugs behind the speeder looked like they might try something, so Samus threw a concussion grenade under the landspeeder parked two spaces away from them and closer to her.

The blast also detonated the speeder's fuel tanks, and the secondary explosion threw more smoke into the air. It also had the impact of making sure the guards, moving forwards to get a view through the smoke, were no longer so eager, and the two thugs about to take potshots broke and ran. Samus let them; no reaon to discourage such behavior, after all.

Now Samus had some breathing room, and as the smoke thickened and rose, she moved to the next part of the plan. Vaulting onto the steps in front of the door, Samus pulled out a demolition charge and clamped it to the door as a breaching charge. She then set the timer for 15 seconds and armed it.

Now faced with a time limit, Samus aimed her ascension gun just above a darkened 5th story window, and launched the grappler. Once safely anchored, Samus retracted the cable, pulling herself up to the window as far as possible while remaining out of sight of the thugs below. She had to hold her breath at this point, as smoke had drifted over toward the window from earlier. She pointed her blaster at the upper right corner, and waited.

Briefly. When the charge went off, blasting the door open, Samus blasted the window and yanked herself up and in, smashing the window and using the explosion to cover the noise, before detaching the grapple. Now, if her ploy went unnoticed, she just had to move quietly to the hanger while the Red Rancors rushed to ground level to meet her. Of course, there was no guarantee she'd been unnoticed. Samus moved through the dark corridor as swiftly as possible while keeping silent, her boots chosen for their quiet soles.

This wasn't the first time she'd entered the den of her enemy using stealth, but it was actually quite a bit better than the first time, sneaking into a space pirate mothership. That had been the most desperate hour of her first real mission against the pirates, where she'd been shot down without her suit. Even though she'd now been without it for considerably longer, at least she didn't have to fight Zebesians with nothing more than a low powered, emergency stun pistol. In all the months here, at the center of this galaxy's civilization, she had yet to hear of, much less encounter, a species of such prodigious physical prowess.

Though it was oddly strange moving through an environment actually designed for someone of human capabilities. Most missions she'd gone on were in the wild places, barely navigable to her even with her acrobatics and power suit. It wasn't an unwelcome change.

If she put her mind in the right place, though, the office complex was reminiscent of some of the ruins Samus had encountered in her travels. Quiet, despite the commotion elsewhere. Bereft of natural light; the Red Rancors must have shut down the power grid on the floor. Given the layer of dust on the floor and everything else, they didn't seem to use the area at all, except as a dumping ground for odds and ends. There was even a decrepit swoop bike jammed into one office. The only artifacts hinting at the place's purpose were desks and chairs no one had bothered to remove. Samus wished she had her scan visor, to find out how long they'd lain there. Given what she knew of the age of the underlevels, it could well have been centuries since the office had seen proper use, and the idea this office might be older than some of the ruins she'd explored stirred her curiosity.

But there was no time to indulge. Deep inside, and hopefully close to some stairs up, she heard an elevator arrive. A moment later, light bloomed around the next corner. She ducked into an office as she heard hurried footsteps and voices.

"…they expect us to find in here?" said a female voice Samus tagged as Young. The footsteps were rapidly approaching.

"Anything that might help find or fight that bounty hunter," replied a male voice, which Samus tagged as Deep, as the footsteps passed Samus's office hideaway. "Sensors, droids, heavy weapons… hold up." The footsteps ceased, and Samus tensed. "Looks like footprints here…"

 _The dust!_ Samus swung out of the office door towards the voices as she switched to her blaster's quieter stun setting. A tall, burly man and a Twi-lek woman were bent over about 3 meters away, examining her footprints on the floor. The electronic blurp of a stun blast sailed out and hit the man in the back, and he slumped forward. The woman cried out in alarm and turned toward Samus, fumbling for a weapon, but Samus had moved forward while the stun blast recharged, and laid her out with a kick in the face, before following up with a stun blast moments later.

Following quietly back the way they had come, Samus listened, but could hear no response to the brief encounter. No one else seemed to be on this level. Their tracks led to an elevator, and Samus looked around to find a sign directing sentients to a stairwell for emergencies. She found it without incident, and took it up two stories to the level of the airspeeder hanger.

Samus opened the windowless door slowly and quietly, not knowing what was on the other side. She gradually saw a double high room, that she guessed was once meant to impress. Decorative columns and stone benches made for a plaza like atmosphere, accentuated by planters. But the plants had long since withered and died from lack of care. A raised dais was on one side of the triangular room, and she could see movement on and onto it, from a door in the far corner that looked like it led to the hanger. It seemed reinforcements from the hanger were joining the search for her.

Unfortunately, as the door opened fully and Samus peeked further out, a blaster shot cut across her vision and struck the wall to her left. As she ducked back into the cover of the door and switched off the stun setting, she took one of her concussion grenades and "cooked" it for a second before throwing it in the direction of the shot. People on the dais were now turning to see Samus, and she snapped off a shot from cover as the grenade detonated. With multiple hostiles beginning to draw or dive for cover, Samus did the same, jumping out of the doorway to put the nearest column between her and the enemy while facing toward the earlier shot. As she pressed her back up against the column, Samus could see the remains of a gang member behind another. Her only idea of why he might be there was that he was shirking, but she abandoned the thought as irrelevant as blaster shots rang out, alternately hitting the column and the wall behind.

She took a quick look around the column and snapped off a shot, ducking back as multiple blaster bolts came her way. It was a long enough look to count at least six armed men arrayed against her. The simple solution would be explosives, but weather by accident or design, they were too spread out for a concussion grenade to get more than two, and such accurate throwing would leave her vulnerable.

Samus fired blindly around the column, hoping to buy time as she looked around. A column was close enough on either side to leap to for cover, but the row of columns didn't extend far enough for her to get to the hanger that way. Other things like planters and benches might provide some cover, but wouldn't be good enough unless she could keep her opposition pinned down, which would be chancy with just a blaster pistol. Then her gaze wandered up, and she saw the top of the column had a large, decorative lip. Looking at other columns across the room, she saw that the top of the lip appeared flat, and deep enough for what she had in mind.

She fired several more blind shots around the left side of the column; then, concealed by its bulk, she holstered her blaster before turning and jumping to grab the lip at the top of the column. After pulling herself up, she worked her way around the right side on the balls of her feet, heels unsupported, and drew her blaster again, peeking out around the right side of the column.

The thugs below her were still aiming for the left side of the column as Samus took aim. She started with a Rodian confidently leaning forward from behind a column on the far side of the room, her blaster shot taking him in the right breast. The human woman to the left of him had just enough time to look up before she went down. The third man had almost swung his blaster into line with her to retaliate when he went down, too. The others began returning fire, but it was panicked and poorly aimed, and Samus had excellent cover, while the high ground made theirs almost useless. Unfortunately, as the fourth man went down, a pair of Red Rancors came from the hanger, and Samus was forced to engage the new threat before they could flank her. She took one down as the second wheeled around, making it back to the safety of the hanger. Samus turned back to the remaining thugs when one of them got lucky.

A line of fire from the edge of a bolt creased her abdomen before hitting one of her smoke grenades. The grenade blasted out a puff of smoke as the bolt atomized a portion of its chemicals, now ignited and continuing to spew smoke from the hole while pouring from the bottom vent as well. With no warning, Samus inhaled some of the smoke in addition to being effectively blinded. Trying to suppress coughing, she pulled the grenade from her vest and threw it to the floor with her last undamaged to give cover as she dropped to the floor to get a breath, vowing to reevaluate her policy on such copious grenades. A different grenade could have been fatal. Coughing out the smoke in her lungs, Samus threw a flashbang grenade in the direction of the dais before hunkering down and covering her ears. When the grenade detonated, leaving her half deaf despite her precautions, she dashed for the hanger behind the growing wall of smoke.

The gang member who had fled back inside was next to the door with his back against the wall when she went through, and she backhanded him in the face while searching for threats. None were immediately visible, but the yellow speeder she came for was parked five spaces from the hanger doors. Samus searched for a control panel to open them; spotting a likely candidate near the doors themselves, she headed for it at a run. She needed to work quickly before reinforcements could arrive. The control panel was unsecured, so she used it to begin opening the doors, before proceeding to her last order of business in the base.

Throwing her pack in the yellow speeder and taking out her demolition charges, she placed one in or on every third airspeeder, Greyshade's excepted, arming them for remote detonation. She couldn't afford pursuit by the gang; besides the fact she was not an experienced airspeeder pilot, she couldn't afford police involvement with a chase. She had just used her fourth and last charge, having had to space them out further after the second, when someone poked their head into the hanger.

Samus snapped a shot off as she leapt into the pilot seat of Greyshade's airspeeder. She fired at the door again, before keying in the ignition code given her by her employer. She continued to fire as the engines spun into life and the airspeeder began rising from the floor, before holstering the blaster and taking the control yoke. Several shots followed after she turned towards the hanger entrance, but none struck anything vital as she plowed forward, banking and turning as she shot out of the hanger. Briefly slowing to collect her droid, she withdrew and activated the detonator after reaching that she judged a minimum safe distance. Then she opened the throttle and shot away into the endless night.

"… and after I took off, it was pretty much clear flying back to my employer. Well, as clear as any flying through Coruscant's skies can be." Several days later, Samus was back at _The Mark_ , once more sharing a table with Neeshar and Dengar. "Once the airspeeder was delivered, we settled on the terms of payment, and I picked a ship and started going over the basic modifications that were discussed."

"Nice," said Dengar, leaning back in his seat. "You got a police ship?"

"A Nubian _Conqueror_ ," Samus replied, with a trace of pride. At their expectant looks she elaborated. "From the top, the front is an ovoid shape, that narrows into a thinner neck before expanding into a oval cut off at the end It's got a ridiculous eight engines in blisters on the rear, with the four outermost larger than the res. At the front it has a bubble canopy flanked by a pair of fixed ion cannons, and there's a dual laser cannon turret along the ship's spine, midway between the engines and the neck. Internal space is sadly lacking, and I'll have to take up more of it with a cabin, since it wasn't really intended for interstellar voyages. It has a slower class 2 hyperdrive I'll want to upgrade."

"Any other upgrades now?" asked Dengar.

"Primarily, some extra control lines together with Astromech cradles. I'm getting a pair of R2 units to help me manage the ship. One can handle the engineering station and act as co-pilot, and others can be the gunner. Else I'd have to manage the turret from the cockpit. They'll also help with repairs." Samus paused for a moment before continuing. "I also had some economy sized cells put along one wall. They should be humane enough for short voyages. Hopefully no tour groups try to book passage," she said with a smile.

"How 'bout a medical bay, for when you get shot again?" said Dengar, smirking.

Samus let out an exasperated breath. "I've got a bacta patch on it, so the burn will be gone in a few days, no scarring. There's no room for a medical bay. That's what armor is for, and I'll be getting some before next time I tackle something like that. Certainly I'll be a bit more circumspect with grenades. That could have turned out badly," she said, stretching the last word out.

"That's an understatement," snorted Neeshar. "What are you going to name the ship?"

"The _Light of Aether_ ," said Samus.

It only took a few more days for Samus's modifications to be completed, when she returned to Doneta's to accept custody of the ship, as well as its security codes. Her belongings from the aprtment had been brought with her in the airtaxi, and she moved them up the ramp under the mandibles in a borrowed hover cart to be put away before flight. First she headed to the cargo bay for her delivery.

Waiting there were two currently inactive R2 units, each white with colored highlights. Closer inspection showed the green one was R2-K8, and the yellow one was R2-R3. After a moment, Samus realized she wasn't sure how to activate them, so she decided to begin with the obvious.

"Wake up," she said. After moment, lights on their domes blinked on, and she was greeted by a musical series of beeps as the two units activated. "I need you to familiarize yourselves with this ship, the _Light of Aether_ , and run preflight checks and maintenance for her first spaceflight. When that's done, R3 is to report to me." This was followed by cheerful, affirmative beeps from the droids, who wheeled off to other parts of the ship.

Samus had finished moving her personal items to her small cabin and was stowing her equipment when R3 arrived and whistled at her.

"Thank you. You and the others go to your sockets. You'll be in the gunnery station, and K8 should go to the engine room. I'll head to the cockpit soon to take her up."

Samus finished stowing the gear several minutes later before heading up to the cockpit. The instrument board reported the R2 units were waiting in their sockets, and she settled into the pilot's chair before activating the comm. She'd put a lot of her time in the days since her mission studying the controls and basic flight theory, finding differences between flying this ship and the gunships she was used to.

"Doneta control, this is the _Light of Aether_ requesting takeoff clearance."

"Affirmative, _Aether_. We'll open the hanger doors. You may take off in one minute, mark."

Samus glanced at her chrono as she closed the transmission, then began the startup sequence. "R3, you'll be my acting co-pilot for this. K8, I'll eventually want you to plot a course, but I won't pick a destination until we're in high orbit. Otherwise, make sure nothing goes wrong back there." The two R2 units made noises approximating cheerful apprehension.

The minute up, Samus completed the startup sequence and put power to the repulsorlifts, causing the _Aether_ to hover above the floor, before she activated the maneuvering thrusters and goosed the ship sideways into the main hanger corridor. Once she was clear she started accelerating toward the main doors on thrusters to avoid damage to the tightly packed ships. Once through the doors and seeing them begin to close, she started throttling up the engines and angling for the sky, shooting up towards space as the R2 units warbled excitedly.


	5. Chapter 5: Desperate Clients

Koan Gantt approached Dex's Diner with an even stride that belied his turbulent thoughts. He had parted with Dex on friendly terms, and Dex never forgot anyone. But he was in the kind of situation no sane person would stick their neck into; he could only hope Dex was willing to listen and knew someone he could turn to. Even in the barren wastes of Concordia where he'd met the man, he always seemed to know someone, or failing that, a "friend of a friend." Logic suggested his setting up a Coruscant diner had only improved matters, but this was too important for him to help worrying. Arriving in front of the red rimmed door, Koan entered the bustling, aggressively metallic diner.

Moments later he was greeted by a red, monopod server droid with a metal skirt and feminine curves to match. "By yourself, honey?" It's honeyed voice emanated from a slit mouth, and went well with its assumed gender.

"Yes," he said, and the droid wheeled around toward an open seat at the bar. "But I was hoping to speak with Dex about something important. Can you tell him-"

"Koan!" A warm voice rose from behind the bar, and as the man named turned Dex's smiling face rose as well from behind the serving window. Koan took this as a good sign, idly curious if Dex greeted every past acquaintance so warmly, as he ambled forth from the kitchen and took a seat at the bar.

"So what brings you over from Concordia?" said Dex, as if it was but a flight to the next town.

Koan closed his eyes for a moment before opening them and leaning toward Dex. "I need help. I'm in a situation with some rather dangerous people, and I don't trust the Mandalorian government to be able to help. Or, I don't trust all of it." He inclined his head toward Dex. "I need someone who can help, but I'll go it alone if necessary. Lives are at stake; and it's personal." He paused for a moment, his serious expression becoming more vulnerable. "You don't know any Jedi, do you?"

Dex was silent for a moment, drumming two hands worth of meaty fingers on the tabletop while his lower left stroked his ample chin. "I do know a Jedi," he said after a moment, and Koan let his hopes start to rise. "One of the better ones too, with a padawan even." He saw Koan's attempt to school his expression and sighed. "But that means they send him all around the galaxy. I think he's out on a diplomatic mission in the mid-rim, right now."

Koan let out a small sigh, mouth closed. "Any idea if he'll be back in the next standard week?" His voice betrayed a hint of desperation that almost made him wince.

"No," Dex said, honest regret evident in his voice. "I take it's a matter of urgency? He'll be back eventually, and I may be able to get him interested, especially if you're talking about some kind of corruption on Mandalore. I think Kenobi had a soft spot for that place."

"Obi-Wan Kenobi?" Koan sat up. "I heard he was one of the Jedi that stepped in during the Great Clan Wars."

Dex smiled broadly. "The same." Then Koan's slumped back down, and Dex's bony eyebrows narrowed toward his head crest. "What's wrong?"

"I don't think I can come to him, not if I can't talk in person first. The group I have problems with would notice to him. They might hurt the people I'm trying to help," Koan said, staring at the countertop.

Dex stroked his chin again as he stared out into the distance. "There might be someone. You used to be an armorer, back on Concordia?"

"I still am," Koan said, raising his eyes again to those of the Besalisk. He wasn't sure what Dex was getting at, but knew he always got to a point eventually. "I make armor for the ceremonial guard, now. Part of why I'm have trouble."

"There's a bounty hunter I might be able to put you in touch with, who's come here a few times," he said slowly. "She's even back on Coruscant right now."

"I need someone trustworthy!" He hissed, lips tight. "And I can't pay a bounty hunter not what they'd ask for this."

Dex gave him a smile. "But this one has something you could offer. I heard she's looking for someone to make her a set of armor. Someone who knows Mandalorian armor."

Koan stared at Dex for a moment before he replied. "I stopped making armor for those savages for a reason, and it wasn't the politics," he said frostily. "Why would I do it for a mercenary without even pretensions of honor?"

"Well, she has a fairly clean rep, for a bounty hunter," Dex rumbled. "I know she found my place after she pinched someone right outside. She could have barged in here and made a scene, but she waited 'till he left and still avoided one. Besides, since everyone else she can find feels the same way, she can't just go to someone else," he said, smile growing conspiratorial, his voice even moreso. "And it's not something she can coerce from you. Not if she thinks it will keep her alive," he finished, chuckling ominously.

Koan took a long breath and rubbed his temples. "Fine then. Tell me how to get in touch with her."

Samus returned to her assigned docking bay, curious about the comm she'd got from a man who wanted to hire her. As a fairly new fish in this galaxy's pond, this was the first time someone specifically contacted her; the time with the ship she'd just been in the right place at the right time. A fair skinned, blond man was sitting on a bench near the docking bay, and wearing a greenish blue tunic and pants.

"Samus Aran?" he said, getting up as she left the pedestrian traffic of the main corridor for the docking bay entryway.

She nodded. "I'm guessing you don't intend to pay in credits." Her voice matter of fact, as her eyes noted the cut of his clothing matched what she'd seen of Mandalorians.

He cocked his head at the door, and Samus nodded; they could talk more inside. She input the code to the large double cargo doors and stepped inside. "I assume that won't be a problem," he replied as the door closed, and they walked toward the _Light of Aether_.

"No. You're offering something that I evidently can't buy with credits. As an added bonus, such jobs tend to be more interesting." She smiled as she input another code to lower the boarding ramp.

"Not how I would describe it," he growled, and Samus dropped the smile when she looked at him again.

"Personal, then?" she said, posture and tone all business as she walked up the ramp and into the common room. She waved for him to sit at the L-shaped couch around the triangular table, and took a seat opposite him. R2-R3, who she called Sphere, was plugged into the monitor station. He warbled when they came in before returning his attention to it.

"Yes," he said, taking a moment to gather himself, and setting his face in an impassive mask. "To put it bluntly, my wife and two sons have been kidnapped by terrorists to be used as leverage."

There was a moment of silence before she spoke. "That certainly is personal," she said with a nod. "I assume you need me to rescue them. Tell me the who and the why."

He paused a moment, before speaking in a tone that somehow combined dry presentation with simmering anger. "They call themselves the Death Watch. They're a group of Mandalorian warriors who want a return to our violent past. I don't know how widespread they are, but the government doesn't acknowledge their existence. I don't know if it's from ignorance or denial. They approached me some time ago attempting to recruit me; firstly because I was an armorsmith and clan warrior before the conclusion of our civil war ten years ago, and second because I now serve as a smith for the ceremonial guard in the capital of Sundari."

Samus crossed her arms. "And they didn't take no for an answer."

"No. They cannot recruit me as a warrior, so they still want me to place listening devices and other espionage tools in the armor, where it may be difficult for scanners to detect. If I refuse or try to tell anyone, they've threatened to sell my family into slavery with the Hutts, as they feel 'traitors' deserve no honorable death." This last was bitten out, and Samus couldn't help but identify with his smoldering rage. She'd known it well.

"Do you have some proof they're well?" she said. "I can't commit to this without some idea they're still alive."

"They let me send recorded messages once a month, and receive responses in turn. But I'm worried they're working towards denying me sending messages myself," he said, lips pursed.

"Which would let them use recorded messages." She nodded. "Good enough. Now for the deal. You obviously heard I'm looking for armor," she began, but he cut her off.

"Though a serious breach of tradition, I will forge the armor if you can save my family," he said gravely.

Samus let out an exasperated sigh. "In point of fact, the armor I want commissioned is not Mandalorian. It's similar enough I wanted a Mandalorian to make it, but I want something heavier and with more coverage. Sphere, if you would?"

R3 warbled an affirmative, and disconnected from his station before wheeling over and switching on his holoprojector. Above the table appeared a rotating holographic image of the armor Samus envisioned. It's similarities to Mandalorian armor were obvious, starting from its metal construction, but the differences were also clear to Koan. The legs were fully enclosed front and back, with overlapping guards over the knee. The arms were similarly protected, and the torso armor used multiple overlapping plates to provide freedom of movement of Mandalorian armor while covering its vulnerable gaps. Also unlike standard Mandalorian armor, the torso was protected under the arms as well. Finally, the helmet had a triangular viewport rather than a T, which Koan could not know was based on Samus's powersuit helmet.

"In addition to the increased coverage, the plates would be thicker as well. I would like for most of it to withstand hits from typical blaster rifles," she said after giving him a moment to examine the hologram. "Before you raise the obvious mobility issues, I should mention I'm a near human. My particular heritage gives me improved strength and agility. And your skill as an armorsmith should alleviate any ergonomic issues; this is merely a concept. Other features I want would be at least an hour of endurance in vacuum, and at least some modularity for a visual sensor package." She could see that despite himself he was intrigued by the project, and his words bore this out.

"I haven't made anything _really_ new for some time," he said, leaning back with arms crossed, and staring into the distance. He sat there for half a minute before he continued. "It will take time and special equipment, but I can satisfy the first part. I don't know how to make space suits, but I can make the suit so you can replace the under layer with a skinsuit. I'll do my best making the helmet modular, but it's not my area of expertise, and it will likely need some modification." He turned to her once more, his face serious again. "If that's settled, then I just have one condition."

Samus looked at him like a cat waiting for another to pounce. "What?"

"I'm coming with you on the rescue mission," he said, arms still crossed and head inclined toward her.

"That's a terrible idea," She said flatly. "You'll get in the way, and I'll have one more person to protect. Going in _and_ out."

"I won't negotiate on this," he stated. "I don't know you, and I won't leave my family entirely in the hands of a stranger. Besides, I may be an armorer, but I'm a Mandalorian armorer, not some untrained civilian."

"You can still get killed," said Samus, glaring. "Besides leaving me in the lurch, how do you know I'll finish the mission?"

He narrowed his eyes a bit, but raised a hand in a conciliatory gesture. "My family should be able to put you in touch with some friends I made in my warrior days. If you can convince them you acted with honor, they'll fulfill my end of the bargain."

Samus continued to glare at him for a moment, before looking away with a sigh. She could tell he wouldn't budge on the issue, and privately couldn't quite blame him for it.

"Fine," she said, running a hand through her hair. "But remember, too, that it's on you if you slow me down. Now," she said, looking straight into his eyes, "What can you tell me about them? How big a threat are they."

Koan sat back, looking off into the distance once more. "They'll be wearing Mandalorian armor, of course. Not as complete protection as what you want, especially the legs, but a lot better than anyone else you might run into. They'll have jetpacks, often with an integrated missile launcher. Concealed weapons in the gauntlets can typically include a blaster, vibroblade, fibercord whip, and a miniaturized flamethrower with good range for its size. They're well trained with their gear, but I have no idea of their experience. Unfortunately, I also have no idea where to find them, although I assume my family is being held on Concordia. That's Mandalore's moon. It's sparsely populated enough to hide, but there are mining operations that allow for a lot of traffic back and forth."

"That's a lot of options at their disposal, but they can't use it all at once." Samus could tell this was going to be a headache. "Doesn't really narrow down where to find the base."

"Afraid not," he sighed. "Obviously, if they were easy to find, Duchess Satine and the Mandalorian government would have done something about them already."

"What about the kidnapping?" she asked. "Might be some clues from it."

"Well, nothing forensic, of course. It happened about five standard months ago. I was visiting Concordia to look into a new ore vein reputed to be of armor quality. My wife, Aaotin, heard of some hot springs nearby, and we decided to turn my trip into a family vacation. We took a public interplanetary shuttle and stayed the night. When I returned from my trip the next day, I found a hologram device in my room. It scanned the room before playing a message from a Death Watch member in armor, who briefly showed my family was in their hands, before telling me that I would do as they said or else they would be sold to the infamous Gardulla the Hutt. Afterwards, the projector's circuitry self-destructed with a small incendiary charge; otherwise I would have brought with me. They contacted me again a week later."

"I assume nothing's readily traceable?" she said, as something tickled her brain.

"Not without government resources, no. But I've already gone over why that isn't viable."

"Yes…" She trailed off for a moment. "You're sure the message specified Gardulla the Hutt?" she asked slowly.

His reply was even, measured. "Quite sure. You don't forget that sort of message. Why?"

"I may be able to trace this backwards. If Death Watch has an arrangement, or has done this before, there may be records on the slave trader's end that could lead me to them," she said. "Once I find out where Gardulla is based, I can make plans. How do I contact you when I find them?"

"Go to the Mandalorian capital of Sundari and head to the _Peace Moon_ tapcaf," he said after a moment. "The owner's been a loyal supporter of Satine's faction since before it was her faction, so I can trust him to get a message to me that you've shown up. Now I should go. I'm supposed to be here on business, and the only reason I have that long a leash is because they think I don't have the money, connections, or evidence for something like this."

"Then you'd best be off," said Samus, putting her hand forward. He shook it, nodded, and walked off the ship.

For her part, she needed to visit the bar, and get some equipment.

 **A/N:**

Just a heads up; my job is getting rather busy, and I may have to work a few weekends in the near future. Don't be surprised if the next chapter is delayed a bit.

For anyone who hasn't watched the prequels in a while, Dexter's Diner is where Obi-Wan goes to find out about Fett's Kamino Saberdart. Actually, I only just realized the irony of Mandalorians getting involved in this fic through him.

I was a bit hesitant to bring Mandalorians into this, as I don't want this to feel like another Samus fights Boba Fett fic (I feel the time period has pretty well averted that). But Samus needs some armor, and everyone knows they have the best. I'm picturing what she's asking for as a bit of Mandalorian armor, made quite a bit heavier to take advantage of her abilities. Something like a hardsuit, or the kind of armor space marines wear in a lot of videogames, but with a visor like her classic suit. Or maybe between Mandalorian and clone armor, without the plastic look.

Spoilers to follow about my plans for the story. Although you may guess from the above.

I feel I should say at this point that it will be quite some time before Samus gets her power suit back. Given that she can survive complete immersion in lava, _indefinitely_ , in some of the games, I felt her fully powered suit presented too many problems from a story point of view. She might well be able to tank lightsaber hits! And it would be difficult to find out how the standard nerfed armor she starts every game with would work against Star Wars weapons. Not to mention there are no Chozo upgrades lying around.

So I'm planning to give her native Star Wars equivalents of her gear when possible. For example, the ascension gun from last chapter is the star wars equivalent of her grapple beam, and what she wants Koan Gantt to build her would be an analogue to her powersuit, albeit functioning differently given the lack of personal energy shields in the prequels (Supposedly Droideka shields give you radiation poisoning). More will come as appropriate, although many, like Morph Ball, I can't think of a solution for.


End file.
